Flames goalie Joey MacDonald stops shots during practice on Tuesday. The Flames are gearing up for a crucial stretch, stringing the remaining games together in seven-game packs in order to simulate playoff series.

To his credit, Bob Hartley is not bothering to trot out any we’re-better-than-our-record guff.

No one wants to hear that line of baloney, anyway.

The Calgary Flames coach, refreshingly, points to the Western Conference table as the only true measure of his team.

In the Flames’ case, that means 8-8-4, that means four points out of fifth place, that means being two points out of 15th.

That means the local side is not in a good place.

“Look at the standings — that’s the easiest motivation that I can find,” said Hartley. “Winning games should be the only priority on our list right now. Whoever plays goal, whoever plays centre, whoever sings the national anthem, it’s not a priority for me right now.

“We’re right there (in playoff contention), but we’re not in the pack that we want to be in. We have some major steps to take.”

Hartley has divvied up his schedule into seven-game series, the goal being nine points out of each. (To make the math work, the first set is a six-gamer.)

So far, mined out of the first three chunks are four, nine, seven points.

“We’re starting a new segment (Wednesday against the visiting San Jose Sharks),” said Hartley. “That’s going to be a very important segment for us. Because, if we are successful, we are going to join that pack. We can generate confidence, we can generate momentum, out of a good segment.”

The goal now — in addition to getting over (the National Hockey League’s version of) .500 — is to not go bonkers about out-of-town matches going into overtime and beyond.

“We were talking prior to Game 1 that those three-point games would become a nightmare — and they are,” said Hartley. “When you’re the one losing in OT, you’re happy about that point. When you’re watching at home and you see three-point games, you want to throw the T.V. in the backyard. That’s the way it is.”

DEFENCE SHUFFLE

After a relatively stable stretch of defensive pairings, Hartley has re-arranged his second and third duos.

Mark Giordano and Jay Bouwmeester remain together, but Chris Butler is now operating with Dennis Wideman, while Derek Smith works alongside T.J. Brodie.

Out of Sunday’s juggling emerged a rather solid effort from Butler, whose 21:37 of ice time represented a season high for him.

“Buts is a good soldier for us — nothing complicated,” said Hartley. “I challenge him . . . to move into the rush because that second wave (of attack) is so valuable, so tough to defend. A guy like Chris Butler can definitely do this. Sometimes defencemen of his style, they don’t expect that offensive power out of themselves. Whether you finish with five or six goals — instead of one or two — those three or four goals can be a big difference in a season.

“Definitely, Buts has the talent to do it. It’s just to put it in his game, in his arsenal.”

Butler, so far, has four helpers.

“I feel like I’m in good shape,” said the 26-year-old, a healthy scratch three times. “I feel my confidence handling the puck, my confidence reading the plays, has grown over a handful of games. Once you get into the swing of things, playing game after game after game, you start to get into a nice rhythm. But you always feel like you can do more.”

Cory Sarich, meanwhile, has been scratched for 12 of the past 15 dates.

POKER STARS

Monday at the eight annual Texas Hold-’em Poker Tournament, the Calgary Flames Ambassadors raised $250,000 for the Flames Foundation for Life.

Over the past eight years, the event has raked in $2.7 million.

Sold out as always, the tourney featured celebrities — including Flames players, coaches, alumni, and representatives from the Stampeders and Roughnecks — at the Deerfoot Inn and Casino.

The last standing member of the Flames had been Curtis Glencross.

Rob Zimmer, from title sponsor Stephens Fine Homes, was the overall winner, collecting a $10,000 championship ring from Jewels by Maxime’s, two tickets from WestJet, two 2012-13 Top Shelf Flames tickets, and $5,000 in cash.

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